Originally Posted by
rudderrudderrat
The baulked landing procedure (Select TOGA power and rotate to 10 degs pitch) allows you to fly away from any attempted landing - even after touch down.
Indeed. A bit of background - The very first Software Engineering module lecture I attended in my first year at Uni had my late Prof. showing us the infamous video of the accident - he then took a show of hands to see how many of us thought it was an issue with the computer/software implementation - quite a few went up. He then proceeded to explain why it wasn't what so many of us believed, and provided an overview of how the systems were designed/implemented - finishing up by pointing out that it only takes a small mistake to cause a disaster, and just how much work and effort it takes to keep those mistakes to a minimum.
I've said it before, but I should reiterate that said Prof. was originally a dyed-in-the-wool sceptic when it came to digital FBW in civil aviation, and was well-known on the old Risks list for holding people's feet to the fire!
Some pilots seem to forget that the only thing that makes an aircraft climb is thrust (when you have no more kinetic energy to swap for height).
Why on earth they were so close to Alpha Max AND Low Height AND Idle Thrust is beyond me.
At least some of the answers are found in the lesser-known "Other factors" section of the report:
(Emphasis mine. Please excuse ropey Google translation - it was the best I could do in the time!)
3.2.2 . other factors
- Flight preparation was insufficient, particularly because of the brevity of the record provided late and information on the air show ;
- The distribution of tasks scheduled for overflight the crew was incomplete and has not been complied with;
- The party atmosphere for both passengers and spectators chip transmit the captain ;
-*A 320 has new features that could induce in the mind of the commander overconfidence
- These new characteristics of the aircraft were sometimes attacked and the captain wanted to defend ;
- neither pilot had experience such pre- flight presentations ;
- The late identification of the land has led some precipitation events and the realization of the descent and the entire passage above the track with full engine reduced and without stabilization of flight parameters ;
- Neither pilot had experience overshoot from flight idle in similar conditions.
In short - the airline and crew forgot the old "5 Ps" maxim*, and thus fell victim to the consequences.
* - i.e "Proper Planning Prevents P*ss-poor Performance".
** - @CONF iture - could you please point me to the page/section where you're getting the 2.5deg value from? Thanks.